As rumours of a Microsoft in-house Windows 8 smartphone continue to rage, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop has been talking up "exclusivities" available to the Nokia phone range that Microsoft won't have access to.

Talking to GigaOM, Elop said that the arrangement between Nokia and Microsoft has been "defined contractually and in practice" in order to "make sure that jointly we're setting priorities for what needs to be done, to make sure there are certain capabilities or even exclusivities that are included for Nokia products for things that are most important to us."

When pressed, Elop mentioned several times Nokia's high quality and low-light capable imaging technology, adding that "the percentage of our R&D that's focused on productive R&D – not plumbing – has gone up substantially".

Elop added that unlike Microsoft's other OEM partners – Samsung and HTC – Nokia has the ability to bring ground-breaking features to the Windows Phone arena.

"We have rights beyond any of the other manufacturers to do unique things and to enforce certain exclusivities for our products. We don't disclose what those are, or the extent of those. But we have the ability to differentiate," said Elop.

It's perhaps poignant that news of Elop's posturing emerged on the same day as Finnish newspaper Iltasanomat reported that the company is thinking of selling its headquarters in Espoo, Finland.

The reported 200-300 million euros the company could gain from the sale might be very handy if and when Nokia finds itself in a handset battle with Microsoft.

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